In Spain, The Dead Help Fight Climate Change
Solar panels sit on top of the mausoleums in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain.
Solar panels sit on top of the mausoleums in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain.
In the Barcelona suburb of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, the deceased are fighting climate change. Last November, the town's cemetery installed more than 450 solar panels on tops of the mausoleums, called niches.
Esteban Serret's company, Cons-te, S.L., manages the graveyard and helped convert it into a solar park. He says the sun is one of Spain's best sources of alternative energy. The graveyard should generate enough wattage to power 60 homes annually.
Some were initially skeptical of putting the panels in such a sacred place. But Serret says that relatives of the deceased "tell us that it's very good to produce clean energy from their grandfather, grandmother, to put the energy to the new generations."
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